New tool for CAMS to visualize meteor streams

Peter Jenniskens announced an impressive tool on the website of CAMS (http://cams.seti.org/) to visualize meteor streams in 3D. The tool has been designed by the software engineer Ian Webster for the visualization of CAMS data. You can display all showers that were identified in the March 2013 release, including the sporadic background! You can drag the point of view with your cursor to change the perspective, select different showers or zoom-in and out. Below are the Quadrantids, currently active for northern hemisphere observers.

About The Author

Specialized into meteor observing since 1975, I have always been concerned about international cooperation. I became editor of WGN in 1978 and in 1980 I tuned WGN into a journal to exchange meteor observing reports, this journal became the IMO Journal in 1988. I was involved with the first initiative in 1978 that lead to the international meteor conferences which I organized myself in 1982, 1986 and 1993. I created the IMO based on my personal network of meteor correspondents in the years 1987-1988. I wrote the visual meteor observing handbook in 1982 (Dutch) which was translated in English and other languages after 1986. I did a large number of visual observations in the period 1975-1995 until problems with my eyes forced me to quit. I created the Visual MeteorDatabase in 1988 and edited 10 IMC Proceedings in the period 1993-2016. Since 2013 I participate in the CAMS video meteor network.Being concerned about the future of amateur meteor work and the international cooperation, I support the initiative of MeteorNews to improve the contacts between meteor observers, to share results and achievements in order to boost the interest in meteor observing.